You may think Brian Kelly is the man for the job at LSU. You may think he's all wrong, and that LSU should find a giant pot of gold somewhere, cut its ties with him and run to find The Guy who will make everything all right.
There was one thing Kelly said at a somber Monday news conference at the LSU football complex to kick off Vanderbilt week that I think everyone can agree on:
"There's nowhere to hide."
Those four words are fraught with all sorts of different meanings for folks. What they mean to me is that the challenge is here. For Kelly, his staff, his players, and even the LSU community at large, to figure out a way out of the Tigers' current malaise. To end a three-game losing streak and to reverse what over the past month has looked like a program that is not progressing but regressing.
Most, but not all, of the responsibility falls on Kelly. As he said in the somber news conference Saturday night after LSU's 27-16 loss at Florida (are you sensing a pattern here?), "The buck stops with me." That' the reward, and the burden, that comes with a $10 million a year coaching job.
LSU, and I think even Kelly would have to admit this, isn't currently getting its money's worth. It's not entirely shocking that the Tigers are 6-4 right now given the deficiencies, question marks and changes the Tigers came into the season with in 2024. New coordinators, and entirely new defensive coaching staff, new quarterback and skill position players, new key players all over the place. Heap on top of that a sprinkling of debilitating injuries -- linebacker Harold Perkins and defensive tackle Jacobian Guillory lost for the year and now the last two games without left guard Garrett Dellinger that appears to be the card pulling down the entire house for LSU's offense -- and you feel the challenging headwinds facing LSU quite literally.
The Titanic has hit the iceberg this season, and there isn't time to turn it around. The only option at the moment is to mitigate the damage and undertake some sort of football salvage operation.
It's going to take a better job from Kelly and his staff, and even more commitment from LSU's players, to turn 6-4 into 9-4 with closing wins over Vandy and Oklahoma plus whatever bowl game the Tigers end up in. At the moment, I have to say, 2025 looks bleak as well considering what LSU may lose off this team. But in the NIL/transfer portal era of college athletics, no one truly knows what the new year will bring.
For now, though, there's nowhere to hide for sure. Every moment and every movement Kelly and his Tigers make from now until whenever their season ends is bound to be highly scrutinized.